News
Bay High School in Bay-St. Louis, Mississippi was recently named a National Model School. The only such school in the Magnolia State, and one of just eight nationally, Bay High has made graduation a priority and instituted several strategies encouraging students to continue their education beyond high school. As evidence of their success, Principal Dr. Andy Parker announced that the class of 2012 has received nearly $4 million in scholarship offers. In addition, senior Chad Burch earned National Merit Scholar honors.
Congratulations to the administration and staff at Bay High!
See news coverage of the story here.
JBHM Education Group was among the Arkansas school improvement providers that produced the greatest gains in both math and literacy, according to the State of Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research, in its 2012 Review of School Improvement Consulting which examined data from between 2006 and 2011. But that wasn’t all. The Review found several more areas in which JBHM Education Group thrived, ranking it among the leading school improvement service providers in the state.
Notably, nearly half of the 148 Arkansas schools that use a single school improvement provider chose to partner with JBHM. It’s a choice that the Review shows is a wise one.
Take Trusty Elementary for example. The school, with JBHM Education Group as its partner, saw doubledigit score improvements—an 18.4 percentage point jump in literacy and a 17.5 percentage point rise in math—that together led all state schools during the 2010-2011 year. And JBHM partner schools had the highest rates of improvement among schools with both two and three years of service. Trusty Elementary’s literacy gains led schools with three years of service, averaging 11.9 percentage points, and they weren’t alone. Morrison Elementary, another JBHM partner school, had the highest rate of annual literacy gains among schools with two years of service, averaging 16.2 percentage points.
The Review also found that JBHM was one of only three providers whose partner schools showed statistically significant average five-year gains between 2006 and 2011, compared to a group of schools receiving no school improvement services during the same time period. Overall, three of the four Arkansas schools that greatly outpaced state averages were JBHM partners.
Given its exceptional record of ongoing accomplishments, JBHM was identified as one of Arkansas’ providers whose schools saw “extraordinary percentage point gains” in literacy and math after just one year of service. And perhaps most importantly of all, the Review found that the improvements resulting from those JBHM Education Group partnerships have been maintained in subsequent years.
JBHM Education Group's successful partnerships with schools in Arkansas' Fort Smith district caught the attention of the Arkansas Association of Education Administrators. The AAEA's newsletter, the Administrator, mentions how a State Board member pointed out "tremendous improvement in test scores" in Trusty Elementary and Morrison Elementary. "So," the story says, "we wanted to know what was going on with those two particular schools." What the AAEA discovered was a relationship between JBHM and the schools that has, in the words of Sarah Lavey, the principal of Trusty Elementary, given her "the support she needed to turn the school around."
Anticipating continued attendance growth for its annual conference on educational best practices, JBHM Education Group has announced that the July 2012 event will be held at The Peabody Memphis, one of the south's most historic hotels. The gathering of district and school administrators, teachers, and JBHM staff and specialists will once again focus on Common Core State Standards.
"We continue to hear from administrators and teachers that transition to the Common Core presents challenges and that they need assistance in developing and executing a plan," said Dr. Evelyn Webb, Vice President for Strategic Programs and Special Projects.
The 2012 Best Practices Conference, slated for July 10 & 11, will include keynote speakers plus presentations by practitioners from both JBHM partner schools and the company's specialists.
Dr. Mike Walters, founder and CEO, notes that this format has been well received. "Combining insight from industry leaders with real examples of best practice implementation is what separates our conference from the rest," said Dr. Walters. "Educators want to be able to connect theory and research with everyday practice."
Increased attendance—last year's event drew some 600 educators from eight states—prompted the company to seek a facility that could accommodate the conference's growing needs. Dr. Webb believes The Peabody is the ideal choice. "The meeting space is perfect and Memphis is easily accessible and offers food and entertainment options for our guests when the conference is not in session," she said.
Dr. Webb also announced that registration will open in January, with keynote speakers and session details to be released as they are finalized.
For more information contact, Dr. Evelyn Webb, 601-987-9187
In an article published in the September 2008 edition of Educational Leadership, Dr. Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, wrote about something called the Extracurricular Advantage. Citing research by several educators and as a result of observations in schools, Dr. Reeves states, “We can make a strong case that the positive peer and adult relationships, organization, discipline, expectations, and other positive influences associated with extracurricular activities are likely to improve performance.”
Brad Kuntz is a high school teacher in Gladstone, Oregon. He wrote an article for the November 2011 edition of ASCD’s Education Update titled, “Engage Students in the School Community”. In the piece he observed, “A student involved in some sort of club, group, or team stands a better chance of becoming an engaged citizen, gaining self-confidence, and feeling more accepted.”
It seems reasonable to conclude that involvement – be it in the classroom or through extracurricular – has a positive impact on students. Creating activities that are student-centered is often the key to enticing participation from students that otherwise would not. Over the past 10+ years we’ve seen countless clever ways to do just that.
Take a look at the examples that follow. And if you’ve designed or witnessed a student-centered activity that engages students, let us know*. From time to time we’ll share a few of your ideas with our specialists and the teachers and administrators with whom we work.
- Develop Back-Row Leaders—purposely choose a struggling student to lead a club or initiative (can be a boisterous, shy, aggressive, or passive person).
- Create English Learners and Special Education Mentors—students who help teach reading by reading to others and helping with vocabulary.
- Form a Compare and Contrast Club—similar to a debate team, discuss current events, art, sports, etc., by using Power Words in a score-keeping format.
- Encourage shy students/slow readers by allowing them to read questions to the class that the teacher has prepared in advance, relating to the lesson for that day.
- Develop a Lunch Club—student-led club that reads about health & nutrition; encourage reading out loud; you can even turn this into a project that will benefit the school at large.
- Start a Coffee Club—after school Creative Writing for Strugglers facilitated by teachers; stress vocabulary; provide coffee for older students, juice for younger grades.
- Implement a schoolwide program to “WOW” students who are caught doing well academically, socially, and behaviorally. Consider using a token economy.
- Initiate a class perfect attendance competition on a periodic basis by having the class spell “Perfect Attendance.” Every day that all students are present for their homerooms, the class will post a letter outside the door, eventually spelling perfect attendance. The winning class gets an ice cream party, pizza party, movie and popcorn, a day out of uniform, or some other creative reward.
*Send your ideas for student-centered activities to sbeibers@jbhm.com. We may have to edit your submission for presentation purposes.
For years there has been discussion about the merits of a national standard. States feared that such a move would be accompanied by meddling from the federal government, preferring to maintain control at the state level. There were also worries that a project of this magnitude would seek the lowest common denominator. The National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers, however, were committed to avoiding the many pitfalls others identified.
By soliciting input from practitioners and other interested parties, the NGA and CCSSO garnered support for their plan. Eventually an overwhelming majority of states adopted the Common Core State Standards. As transition timelines were developed it became clear that educators faced a daunting challenge. Teachers would be asked to continue teaching existing standards while simultaneously moving to the Common Core.
Acknowledging that the changeover could not occur without adequate planning, district leadership sought options for educating and training their staffs on this most significant change. Many have turned to a trusted source for guidance—JBHM Education Group.
The Jackson, Mississippi based company was determined to adhere to its fundamental belief that deep implementation is the key to any instructional program. Consequently JBHM aligned its Common Core solutions to the company’s existing improvement processes, the foundation of which is job-embedded coaching of administrators and teachers.
The two resulting services—COREPOINT and Common Core Support—help schools reach a basic understanding of the new standards and how they compare to existing state objectives. Both services combine training with on-site coaching to move school personnel along the implementation continuum, although Common Core Support provides additional days of service and addresses more issues and strategies.
As many states begin implementation of common core for the 2011-12 school year, several schools in multiple states have committed to one, or both, of JBHM Education Group’s new offerings. And so far, so good.
Dr. Lynn Hanrahan, a JBHM specialist since 2008 is delivering COREPOINT in Arkansas’ Lead Hill School District. She has already seen a change in teacher practice.
Dr. Hanrahan knows that good teaching starts with deconstruction of the Common Core Standard. “This service shows teachers how to translate standards into student-friendly objectives. The result is clear learning targets, and that is critical to both teachers and students,” she said. “Only when students understand what they must know and be able to do, will they learn the critical skills and information they need for mastery.”
COREPOINT not only provides students with clear targets for learning but also gives teachers a laser focus on what is to be taught and the rigor at which it is to be taught and tested. “Lead Hill’s staff has embraced COREPOINT and its focus on the framework needed for designing instruction,” noted Dr. Hanrahan. “They will no doubt make a smooth conversion to the new standards.”
In addition to deconstruction of the standards, COREPOINT also addresses identification of essential vocabulary and effective use of assessments and learning tasks at the appropriate rigor.
Mississippi’s Louisville Municipal School District, among others, is utilizing JBHM’s Common Core Support in three schools this year. Superintendent Dr. Bill Wade sought assistance in development and implementation of a complete transition plan.
“We made the decision to tackle this now because it will help in all areas, including state accreditation issues,” stated Dr. Wade. He brought in JBHM to work with the district’s K-3 teachers this school year, which will set a foundation for the future.
Superintendent Wade also noted that the move to the Common Core should be welcomed. “At the end of the day, this is just good teaching and it will help everyone going forward,” he declared.
The company’s Common Core Support includes many of the components of COREPOINT plusstrategies for crosswalk of existing standards to the common core, lesson study and design, collaborative planning, data teams, and an element of mentorship for principals.
Located in St. Louis, Missouri, Bayless School District chose to combine JBHM’s two services in order to maximize the impact. “We are learning a process that we can replicate into the future. We are unwrapping the standards and helping teachers understand what students must know and be able to do,” explained Assistant Superintendent Ron Tucker.
“Dr. Piper (JBHM specialist Dr. Mary Piper) has been excellent. She considered where we are, our previous professional development, and our assessments in planning implementation,” Tucker said.
The results, according to Mr. Tucker, have been on the mark. “I’ve been from classroom to classroom and building to building to witness an improvement in the consistency of instructional delivery. Student engagement has increased significantly,” he concluded.
The debate will continue around many aspects of the move to Common Core. However, there is no disagreement that the shift requires planning and expertise. If early returns are any indication, JBHM Education Group is well prepared to assist schools in taking the steps necessary to pass this new test.
To learn how JBHM Education Group can help your school with Common Core State Standards, call 866-792-5879.
JBHM Education Group congratulates Mississippi’s 2011 Lighthouse School Leader Awards recipients. The awards were presented by the Mississippi School Board Association (MSBA).
JBHM Education Group’s second annual Best Practices Conference, focusing on Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and best instructional practices, was of such value that educators who attended will push for more of their staff to be at the 2012 conference.
JBHM Education Group congratulates Dr. Benny L. Gooden, superintendent of Ft. Smith (Arkansas) Public Schools, on his recent election as president-elect of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).
The Mid-South Convention Center at Tunica Resorts, Mississippi, will be the setting for JBHM Education Group’s second annual Best Practices Conference, a two-day focus on the instructional leadership and classroom practices that increase student achievement.
Geunia Latrice Smith, a student at Hinds Community College, Raymond, recently received a scholarship established by JBHM Education Group in recognition of its 10 years as a school improvement company.
“Data-driven decision making” and “teaming” are not new concepts. In working with hundreds of schools, however, JBHM Education Group rarely finds a structured and collaborative process actually in place for using data to modify classroom instruction.
How did your struggling learners spend their summer vacation? Did they improve their reading and math skills as their teachers used new strategies to help them succeed?
That’s what students at William Winans Middle School in Centreville, Mississippi, did this summer at their school’s first Smart Camp, organized by JBHM Education Group. Winans teachers and Wilkinson County School District administrators agree that the four-week camp was time well spent.
The educators saw the average reading level of the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who voluntarily attended camp increase by three months instead of slipping as much as six months, as it normally does in summer. Teachers gained new skills in targeting instruction to the specific needs of students who are not performing on grade level.
The emphasis of the half-day sessions was reading, providing students at least two hours of active, guided reading practice each morning, with further support for math objectives. The camp format was fast-moving—students changed activities every 17 minutes—and incorporated a wide range of instructional modalities with differentiation for students with various learning barriers.
Mrs. Rosie Wilson, the district’s federal programs director, was impressed by the high level of student engagement she observed during Smart Camp. “The activities were obviously well planned to keep children focused and excited about what they were learning,” she said. “Smart Camp was just what we needed. We tried it because the ‘same old same old’ doesn’t work anymore.”
Superintendent Timothy Scott agreed, saying the district will continue the camp’s reading emphasis and instructional strategies during this school year with hopes of a second Smart Camp next summer.
“I love it,” math teacher Crystal Joseph said as campers performed a math rap one morning in late June. “I picked up so many ideas that I will be using in my classroom this year.”
Lois Sandusky was a member of the JBHM Education Group team who directed the instructional program for students and job-embedded professional development for teachers. A specialist in struggling learners and literacy/English language arts, Sandusky called Smart Camp a “truly rich, research-based literacy experience.” JBHM specialists heavily managed the planning and delivery of activities at the outset but gradually released their responsibilities to the teachers, continuing on-site assistance and coaching for the remainder of camp. For three days before campers arrived and for one to two hours after they left each day, specialists worked with the teachers on developing skills in helping all students succeed.
Camp gave the teachers practice in guiding students through active reading aloud, pulling out vocabulary words, connecting background knowledge, and asking higher-order questions to promote comprehension. “We saw how students progress much quicker when they have materials that are on their reading level and genuinely interesting to them,” Sandusky added.
While it was labor intensive for the teachers to put a difficult and complex set of new instructional behaviors in place, they did it, Sandusky said, citing the enthusiasm and commitment of lead teacher Alma Anderson as key to making the experience a positive one. “As a result, not only were the students who attended Smart Camp winners, but the students of all of the Smart Camp teachers will be winners this school year,” she said.
Winans Middle School teachers who participated in Smart Camp included Carol Anderson, Nickie Davis, Harriet Green, Amanda Groom, Lois Jackson, and Kathie Perry. The school also held early morning reading sessions in the 2009-10 academic year, recognizing that literacy is key to students' ability to make progress in every subject.
Leading educational researchers Dr. Douglas Reeves and Dr. Lawrence Lezotte inspired and challenged the more than 400 participants in JBHM Education Group’s first summer Best Practices Conference.
Reeves is known for his research of “90-90-90” schools in which at least 90 percent of students are high-poverty, 90 percent are minority, and 90 percent are proficient on state assessments. Even with poverty levels increasing, some of these schools are at 100% proficiency, “not because poverty doesn’t matter, because it does,” he told the educators, “but because you make a bigger difference.”
He shared research findings on the commonalities of 90-90-90 schools. First the schools have a “laser-like focus on achievement.” Examples of student writing, science projects, art, and even test results are highly visible, “even in the trophy case, next to the athletic awards.”
Second, there is collaborative scoring—agreement among teachers and clarity from class to class about what proficiency means. Too common in low-performing schools, he noted, is the reality of students receiving As and Bs in class but failing to pass the state test in that subject.
Third, 90-90-90 schools emphasize nonfiction writing in all subjects, improving students’ abilities to think and express themselves using description, persuasion, analysis, and comparison. The recently announced Common Core State Standards require increased informational writing in earlier grades, Reeves noted.
A fourth characteristic of 90-90-90 schools is providing students multiple opportunities for success. Rather than giving a student a zero or F for missed work, Reeves encouraged, “The penalty for not doing the work should be doing the work. The goal is getting the work done—not giving the student the easier route of a zero.”
Like Lezotte, who addressed the conference via web technology, Reeves underscored the need for schoolwide reforms instead of classroom-only changes. The high-performing schools in his research fiercely protected academic time, allowing no interruptions such as pullout of students from classes, meetings, announcements, etc. “Literacy was sacred time in these schools,” he said.
Lack of programs or technology is not an issue in underperforming schools, he noted. “The gap between the higher- and lower-performing schools is not the gap between having a particular program and not having it; it is the difference between deep implementation and shallow, superficial implementation” of a program. High-performing schools are more focused on in-depth correlation of data and classroom practice, direct modeling in the classroom with students, and individual learning plans for every student who is not proficient in reading, he said.
He advocates early and frequent interventions in the school year to make sure students do not get left behind. “Literacy comes first,” Reeves advised. “Three hours a day isn’t too much if a student can’t read. If you say to students, ‘I will not let you fail,’ you must get squared away on literacy, and it has to be done during the regular school day. Typically those who need it most do not attend after-school programs.”
Lezotte opened the two-day event with a call for U.S. educators to recognize school reform as a moral issue that directly relates to values—not just tactics—in fulfilling the “learning for all” mission.
“The U.S. Department of Education has put a disproportionate responsibility on the backs of teachers,” Lezotte said. “What we’re understanding is the need for the system itself to change.”
As the foremost authority on Effective Schools research, Lezotte asked the audience to visualize the figure eight (8): “In the top loop are mission, core values, and beliefs; in the bottom loop are strategies, tactics, and behaviors. Most school reform efforts are focused on the bottom loop. Very few districts and schools examine their mission, core values, and beliefs, but that is where most problems reside. Absent the belief that all kids can learn, tactics and strategies will collapse.”
He suggested redesigning the typical school building and school day to truly support students who need more time and guided practice to achieve. A “learning-for-all” school would feature a tutoring center, where up to one-third of students could spend as much as one-third of the day receiving differentiated instruction. Students in the tutoring center would have personal “prescriptions” detailing the specific instruction most effective for their individual learning progress.
He called for superintendents and principals to be strong instructional leaders who embrace the learning-for-all mission and communicate it through their actions—applying the principles of effective instruction in managing districts and schools.
Lezotte and Reeves individually lamented the discontinued federal requirement of disaggregating achievement data by gender. “What we are finding is that girls are underrepresented in science, technology, and math,” Lezotte said. “I don’t think this country can afford to write off half of its talent.” The situation would be different if data reporting by gender were still required, he said. “What gets measured and monitored gets attention; what doesn’t gets ignored.”
The Best Practices Conference drew educators and JBHM Education Group specialists from at least five states. In addition to the keynote speakers, the conference included presentations on topics ranging from bullying to instructional intervention, as well as sessions in which district and school teams shared their best practices.
With a cadre of 300+ teaching and leadership specialists, JBHM Education Group stands ready to assist districts and schools in aligning their instruction to the rigor of their current state standards and in preparing for the transition to Common Core State Standards.
What does a school that is working to transform its professional practice look like? Take a look at Shady Grove Elementary, a Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, school that has addressed lagging achievement with an active commitment to educational excellence.
The Mobile, Alabama, school district and JBHM Education Group partnered to help middle school math teachers develop and sharpen their skills in summer 2009. Twenty-four teachers attended the seven-day Math Academy led by JBHM Education math instruction coaches in three locations.
Focused on improvement since 2006, Quitman Junior High School has been honored as an Exemplary Inclusion Program by the Mississippi Board of Education. QJH was the middle school winner of the 2009 statewide awards of the Mississippi Department of Education, Office of Special Education, for providing, to the greatest extent possible, full inclusion of children with disabilities in all aspects of academic and extra-curricular activities.
The Recovery School District--Louisiana (RSD-LA), a division of the Louisiana Department of Education, has hired JBHM Education Group to support two separate groups of underperforming schools as they follow and develop plans of improvement. Both groups were taken over by the state after being classified Academically Unacceptable Schools for four years (AUS-4).
Summer will come and go, but where will your struggling learners be as the new school year begins?
"JBHM Education Group has proven it can provide the needed capacity" to help schools gain the knowledge and skills to realize the aims of NCLB, writes Dr. Lawrence Lezotte in a letter of support.
How can a school make AYP when up to 50% of students are absent on the average day – and 90% of students show up to take state tests? Daily attendance was a very real problem in one inner-city high school in which JBHM Education Group is partnering to make improvements. JBHM specialist Deborah Elmore recommended strong actions.